How to give a good presentation

Think about some good and bad presentations that you have watched in the past.

1. What did you like about the good presentation?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What didnt you like about the bad presentation?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What makes a good presentation?

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________________________________________________________________________

Discuss your answers with your partner

A. Here are some important stages in preparing for a presentation, put the stages in
order.

1. Carefully organise your information into sections

2. Choose your topic
3. Understand who your audience is
4. Practice
5. Prepare your visual aids (power point slides) to match your presentation
6. Work out exactly what you want to say

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Presentation Introductions

The introduction to your presentation is extremely important. It is the first thing that your
audience is going to hear. It therefore, needs to be well planned and structured.

In a good presentation, you should:

Tell the audience when they can ask questions

Give background information on the topic

Introduce yourself

Outline the structure of your presentation

Tell the audience how long the presentation will take

Welcome your audience to the presentation

Introduce the topic of the presentation

A. Put the points into the correct order according to when they should happen in a
presentation.

1. ______________________________
2. ______________________________
3. ______________________________
4. ______________________________
5. ______________________________
6. ______________________________
7. ______________________________

Check your answers before you start the next exercise.

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Focus on Introduction language
B. Match the phrases to the correct part of the presentation introduction.
Good morning ladies and gentleman. Thank you for coming.
My presentation will take about 5 minutes.
The subject of my talk is...
If you have any questions, Ill answer them at the end of my presentation.
My names...Im responsible for...
My talk will last for approximately....minutes
On behalf of....may I welcome you to...
Perhaps we could leave any questions you may have until the end of the
presentation.
This morning I would like to talk to you about....
This talk will be divided into...parts
Id like to introduce myself. My name is....and I am.....
My presentation will be divided into three parts. First, Ill talk about...After that I will
talk about....And finally I will...
Im here today to talk about

Part of Introduction Key phrases

Welcome your audience to the presentation

Introduce yourself

Introduce the topic of the presentation

Outline the structure of your presentation

Tell the audience how long the presentation

will take

Tell the audience when they can ask

questions

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C. Read the presentation introduction and add a phrase from the exercise above to the
gaps.

Well good morning ladies and gentleman. Welcome to my presentation. Before we begin,
(1)_______________. Im Sarah, and Im a lecturer at a University in London.
(2)_______________ the Purple Company. The Purple Company is a company that has
recently opened in London. It is a retailer that sells cosmetics to the public.
(3)_______________. First, Im going to talk about the owners of the company, after that
Im going to talk about their business strategy. And finally, Im going to talk about their
future plans. (4)_______________ 7 minutes. If you have any questions, I will be happy to
answer them at the end of my talk.

Now it is time to plan your own introduction. Choose a presentation topic from the list
below and plan a short 8-10 minute presentation:

A module that you are currently studying

The differences between academic writing in the UK and your country
The social value of education

Think carefully about what you are going to talk about and use the phrases above to help
you. When you have finished planning your introduction, practice saying it out loud. Your
introduction should only be approximately one minute.

Main Body
The structure of the main body is not as rigid as the introduction or conclusion. However, it
is extremely important that you guide the listener through the main body. Therefore, you
need to use sign posting words/phrases. These words/phrases tell the listener exactly
what you have done and what you are going to do.

A. Look at the videos of two main bodies. (The sound is not great but you should be able
to tell which one is better by looking at the body language of each presenter).

Which one is better? Why? (Video 18.1 & 18.2)

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Presentation ____ is better because _______________________________________.

Signposting
Introducing signposting words and phrases into the main body is essential. We are now
going to look at a few.

B. Re-order the sentences.

1. like / of / all / talk / Id / to / First /about

2. must / I / that / emphasize

3. from / As / see / the / you / table / can

4. show / figures / that / The

5. mentioned / As / earlier / I /

6. me / my / now / last / to / point / This / brings

7. move / to / like / of / to / the / Id / question / on

8. new / Lets / to / a / topic / turn / now

Now its time to practice saying the phrases. Listen to your teacher say the phrase and
repeat.

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C. Here are some additional key main body signposting expressions. Put them into the
correct categories.

A summary of the results can be seen on the slide.

As I mentioned earlier...
If we focus on the table/chart
Just to repeat what I said earlier
Let me start by talking about...
Looking at the graph, you can see...
More on this later on.
This brings me to my last point...
Well lets move on to the next point.

Moving from one section to Looking at visuals Referring backwards and

another forwards

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Conclusions
For an 8-10 minute presentation, the conclusion should be approximately one minute. As
with the introduction, the conclusion is extremely rigid.

A. What information do you think you should include in the conclusion?

__________________________
__________________________
__________________________

B. Here is a list of possible things that you could include. Which ones apply to the main
body (MB) and which apply to the conclusion (C).

Go back to the second topic

Sum up the talk
Introduce the first topic
Ask the audience if they have any questions
Refer to a graph to back up information
Thank the audience for their attention
C. You are now going to watch the conclusion of a presentation (again the sound is not
great but you should be able to carry out the following exercise). (Video 18.3)

What is the order of the conclusion?

Put the following stages into the correct order according to the presentation.

_____Ask the audience if they have any questions

_____Sum up the talk

_____Thank the audience for their attention

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D. Now listen to a complete conclusion and fill in the gaps. (Recording 18.3)

This brings me to the end of my talk. So, to (1)________, let me briefly go through the main

points of my presentation. (2)________, I gave you some background information about

the company that I used to work for. (3)________ I talked to you about my responsibilities

in the role that I had (4)________ I spoke about what I learned from working for this

company. I hope (5)________ my presentation. Let me finish by (6)________you all for

your attention. Now, if you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer

them.

Practice saying the conclusion above out loud. Pay particular attention to the
pronunciation and intonation of the phrases.

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Visuals (PowerPoint slides)
When you use PowerPoint in academic presentations, the following things are important:
use of colours on the slides, images, amount of text, referencing and also the number of
slides. With a partner, discuss the dos and donts of each area.

For example, Use of colours Dont use aluminous colours on your slides because it
makes the slide difficult to read.

Now your teacher will give you some advice, make notes under the following headings.

Use of colours

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Images

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Amount of text

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Referencing

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Number of slides

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

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A. Look at the following slides. Which ones are clear and effective and which ones need
improving?

1.

This is the first slide of the presentation. Do you know from this slide what the
presentation is about? What should you include on the title slide?

2.

This is the second slide of a presentation. What is missing? What would you typically see
after the title slide?

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3.

In this slide a student is attempting to show the results of a survey she has carried out.
How could the slide be improved?

4.

This is a main body slide. What are the main problems with this slide?

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5.

This is a concluding slide. How could it be improved?

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Body language
Once you have planned your presentation and written your PowerPoint slides, you have
to practice your presentation. One very important thing to take into account when
presenting is your body language.

What do we mean by body language?

Why is body language important?

Watch this short video which gives advice on body language. Make notes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXFIJ8Sm2N0

Now practice your presentations trying to incorporate the advice given in the video.

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